Claimant's Estate Wins Death Benefits For Diabetes

A deceased claimant's estate won death benefits after proving that her work environment aggravated her diabetes, which eventually led to her death.The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed the Industrial Commission's award of death benefits, but reversed the commission's granting of an additional 240 weeks of "loss of vision" benefits in Kelly v. Duke University, No. COA07-874, 6/3/08, in a published decision.Betty Jean Jeffreys, the deceased worker, had filed a compensable claim in 1999 stating that she had sustained an injury "as a result of mental stress induced by her work e...